Curse

code · Apr 16, 2010, 11:37 PM // 23:37

My ping has always been mediocre to bad in this game, with my average ping usually hanging at around 400-800ms, and my latest ping varying between 250 and 1500ms, very rarely reaching down to 10ms, and much more commonly lag spikes up to 20 seconds.

I play in European districts, because the servers are apparently located in Frankfurt.

So, are you going to tell me it's an issue on my end, I should buy better hardware, etc? Well no, it's not an issue on my end, in all other games (for example WoW, although I don't play that anymore) my ping has been stable under 20ms.

I tried disabling the TcpAckDelay stuff, but nothing helps. This doesn't occur only on my computer, and it doesn't only occur with this connection.

All this is hinting at a problem at ArenaNet's side.

Edit: For those who will tell me I have a bad connection..

KZaske · Apr 17, 2010, 01:24 AM // 01:24

You are not the only one. Here in the US my pings have been hanging around 200-400ms with drops all the way down to 20-40ms every now and then as if to remind me what it was like before LimeLight took over hosting.

Gennadios · Apr 17, 2010, 03:51 AM // 03:51

Been happening like clockwork around the time of major festivals for the past two years.

It's all the players logging in and having to download content update/costume skins and all that.

Can't do muchexcept for live with it atm.

Eluvatar · Apr 17, 2010, 03:52 AM // 03:52

yep and I just lost survivor to a random lag spike for the 3rd time >.< WTB hammers

Death Syndrome · Apr 17, 2010, 05:40 AM // 05:40

Do not even try contacting anet for this issue, it is your shitty pc, and all the programs you have running during gameplay. Even if you have an epic connection / brand new ddr3 pc.

My ping never goes under 100.

Quote:

Thank you for contacting Guild Wars Technical Support. Code=007 indicates that a communication problem was encountered during gameplay. For information on resolving this issue, please try the suggestions listed in this article:

http://help.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/ncsof...p?p_faqid=2440

If you continue to have problems after following those suggestions, please provide us with the information requested below so that we can further investigate the issue:

-How often do you receive the Code=007 (NET_ERR_DISCONNECTED) message?
-What are you doing in the game when you receive this message?
-Are you connecting through a router, switch, or hub? If so, what is the make and model number of that piece of equipment?
-Are you on a home, campus, business, or military network?
-Are you using a firewall application? If so, which one?
-Do you use any Internet Security Applications (ISA) such as CYBERsitter, Net-Nanny, ZoneAlarm®, McAfee®, or Norton™?
-Who is your Internet service provider?
-What type of connection do you have: cable, DSL, dial-up, or satellite?
-Where are you physically located?

Please provide us with as much information as you can so that we can better assist you with this issue.

Regards,
Roger
Guild Wars Technical Support

Quote:

Thanks for the network information. In order for us to better assist you with this issue, we would like you to run our Game Advisor application. The Game Advisor will provide us with helpful information about your system and Internet connection.

We ask that if you are using a router, hub, or switch, to first disconnect this device and connect directly to your modem before running this utility. You may have to reboot your modem and/or computer to reestablish your Internet connection.

To run Game Advisor, please perform the following steps:

1. To download the Game Advisor, go here: http://us.ncsoft.com/gameadvisor/

2. When prompted, save the file to your desktop so that you can access it easily.

3. Double click on the Game Advisor file and then click on the icon of the game you're experiencing an issue with.

4. Click on the "Test Computer and Connection" button and please wait a few minutes while the process completes.

5. Once the process completes, a "Test Result" window will come up. This window will provide you with a link to update your ticket as well as tell you where the diagnostic report is saved. You can also view the report file.

Please update your ticket with this file. If you need assistance attaching a report to the ticket please follow the instructions in the following Knowledge Base article:

Title: Attaching a File
Answer Link: http://help.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/ncsof...p?p_faqid=5887

Once we receive it, we'll have a better idea of how to resolve your issue.

Regards,
David
Guild Wars Technical Support

Quote:

Thank you for the update.

We would like to get more information about the status of your connection so that we can investigate the cause of this issue. Guild Wars has a built-in network diagnostic utility we would like you to run. If you are using a router, hub, or switch, please disconnect this device and connect directly to your modem before you run the utility. You may have to reboot your modem and/or computer to reestablish your Internet connection.

If you are able to access the login screen, please run the diagnostic via the following steps:

1. Launch Guild Wars.
2. Click on the "Test My Computer" link that is immediately below the user name and password fields.
3. Allow the test to fully complete once it launches. This will save the network diagnostic log to your Guild Wars directory.

If you are unable to access the login screen, please run the diagnostic via the following steps:

1. Press and hold the Windows key and then press the R key. This will bring up the Run dialogue box.
2. Click Browse and select your Gw.exe program. It will be in "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars" by default. You can reach this through "My Computer" > "Local Disk C:" > "Program Files" > "Guild Wars".
3. The Run window should now read:

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe"

Modify the line in the Run window to read:

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -diag

4. Press OK to run the test.

You will see a small window that gives the status of the testing while it is running. Please wait for all of the tests to finish. When they are done, click Close. The test will create a new file on your desktop. The test file is called NetworkDiag.log. Please update your incident and attach this file. Once we receive it, we may have a better understanding of what is causing the issue.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Marshal

Quote:

Please disable all startup items to make sure that no background programs or processes are causing a conflict. To do this, please perform the following:

1. Press and hold the Windows key and then hit the R key. This should bring up the Run dialog box.

2. Type "MSCONFIG" without the quotes, and click "OK." This should open the System Configuration Utility.

3. Go to the "Startup" tab and click the "Disable All" button.

4. Next go to "Services" tab and check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" check box, then click the "Disable All" button.

5. Once these items are all disabled, click the "OK" button and you will get a prompt to restart your computer. Please restart your computer.

Once Windows is back up, do not start any other programs and then try the game again. Please let us know if this helps.

Regards,
Timothy
NCsoft Technical Support

Quote:

There is a free trial program called PingPlotter Standard which may be of some use to us in determining the health of your active Internet connection. We ask that if you are using a router, hub, or switch, to first disconnect this device and connect directly to your modem before running this utility. You may have to reboot your modem and/or computer to reestablish your Internet connection.

This program is not supported by NCsoft. You can find the program and information on how to use it at http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html

1. Please download and install the Standard version of PingPlotter.

2. Run the program and in the upper left corner you will see an "Address to Trace:" section.

3. Type in the server IP you find in game by hovering your mouse over the colored dot in the lower right hand portion of the screen and click the "Trace" button. Please allow the tool to run for at least 30 minutes even if you are unable to play, or you get disconnected during this time.

4. Click on the "Stop" button. Then, click on File -> Save Sample Set and save the file to your computer in a location that will be easy to find, such as your Desktop.

Please update your incident at the provided link and attach the report. If you encounter a problem such as excessive lag or Code=007, please tell us what time the problem occurred so that we can investigate that section of the report.

If you would like ask your friends to submit PingPlotter reports from there systems, that could also help our Network Operations team determine if there is an issue that the server performance monitors have missed.

Regards,
Timothy
Guild Wars Technical Support

Quote:

Thanks for providing us with the Pingplotter. It's showing packet loss occurring on multiple hops at various times while you were running the test. We have actually had very few reports of lag or disconnecting from players so please tell anyone you group with that mention lag to report it to us. For now we'd like to get more information about your system's software configuration. There is a program called Belarc Advisor that will provide a great deal of information about your system's software.

Please do the following:

1. Download Belarc Advisor from here: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

2. Save the file to your desktop.

3. Once downloaded and installed, run the program.

4. When the test is complete it will open a report in you web browser. When it opens, click File -> Save As, and save the file to your desktop. Please be sure to save this file as .HTML or .MSC - not .TXT.

5. Please update your ticket with this file. Please do not reply by email, but instead login to your support account and add the file there. Instructions for this are here:

Title: Attaching a File
Answer Link: http://help.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/ncsof...p?p_faqid=5887

This report will help show us if there's anything present on the system that may be causing a conflict with the game's operation.

Regards,
Mike
Guild Wars Technical Support

Since the last reply, I have ran ping plotter again sent it to them everything looked fine.

Although one of my problems is I have to go through 14 servers just to hit the guildwars server.

Still, on ping plotter it shows my ping maxed at 50-75, even after going through those 14 routers/servers, not 200-500, where it normally hangs at.

Coast · Apr 17, 2010, 08:42 AM // 08:42

omg code, u got some freaking nice connection!

code · Apr 17, 2010, 09:10 AM // 09:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Death Syndrome

Do not even try contacting anet for this issue, it is your shitty pc, and all the programs you have running during gameplay. Even if you have an epic connection / brand new ddr3 pc.

My ping never goes under 100.

Since the last reply, I have ran ping plotter again sent it to them everything looked fine.

Although one of my problems is I have to go through 14 servers just to hit the guildwars server.

Still, on ping plotter it shows my ping maxed at 50-75, even after going through those 14 routers/servers, not 200-500, where it normally hangs at.

No, even on a freshly installed OS with nothing other than Guild Wars running on it, I have exactly the same issues.

And how would you explain that the "background programs" only seem to affect Guild Wars and not any other games?

Edit: Here, have a traceroute to a EU game server..

Quote:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0>tracert 206.127.146.65

Routenverfolgung zu 206-127-146-65.plaync.com [206.127.146.65] über maximal 30 A
bschnitte:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 172.20.12.254
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 129.13.72.195
3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms Karlsruhe1.belwue.de [129.143.166.141]
4 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms Mannheim1.belwue.de [129.143.1.174]
5 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms Frankfurt1.belwue.de [129.143.1.22]
6 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms cr02.frf02.pccwbtn.net [80.81.192.50]
7 * * * Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.

The last line is where the TTL is large enough for it to hit the ArenaNet servers, but since they filter out ICMP traffic, you'll never get a reply for that.

It has nothing to do with my computer, but everything to do with the Guild Wars servers, because that is where the delay appears, in their network processing.
This means that their servers are either extremely overstressed by the amount of players, or that their Network code is just plain bad.

To the poster above who disabled all the startup services in msconfig: Your ping can be as low as you want in external ping programs, because they will never show you the crappiness of the ArenaNet servers.
Also, not everyone runs tons of badware on their computer to the point of slowing down their TCP stack.

Death Syndrome · Apr 17, 2010, 10:08 AM // 10:08

It was sarcasm in my last post. I spent days arguing with these people, for them to make me download program after program. And once you pass the test of one program, they send you another one to download, until you give up.

My computer is new and only had my keyboard and mouse drivers with guildwars on it when they were talking about my processes.

If you want an explanation on how the "external programs" will effect your ping you are going to have to ask the geniuses at anet.

The last program they sent me to run gave me the blue screen of death on a brand new computer.

I have 28 mb/s connection
Averages about 20-50 ping when I test it on speed/pingtest.net

Phenom 3.2 Quad Core
4gb DDR3
And I was running the killer xeno pro, which they said could be the problem also, when it clearly made things better in game.

Thing is, they simply tell you it is your computer and will COMPLETELY pass the issue off like there is no issue with their servers because they have people "MONITORING" their servers 24/7.

So it is 100% our shitty (brand new) computers 0% Anet servers.

Nothing you say to them will change their minds, so better get used to it, quickly.

Edit :

Quote:

We hear a lot about 'server lag' and it's impact on disconnects, but this is almost never an issue. There are occasional unavoidable issues related to hardware, but the general performance of the servers is not an issue. Our hardware is top notch, and our networking team is monitoring server performance 24/7 for optimal performance.

Thanks,
Donovan
Guild Wars Technical Support Senior

No way in hell it is the servers man.

Sounds like the networking team is as good as the test krew (seeping wound, nuff said) and Donovans grammar.

code · Apr 17, 2010, 11:14 AM // 11:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by NCSoft Support

Our hardware is top notch, and our networking team is monitoring server performance 24/7 for optimal performance.

Their hardware may be top notch (although that can be discussed), but if their server code is flawed (for example using too many synchronization locks, using the WinSock select instead of IOCP, excessive time spent waiting for the database transactions, not having a scaleable multithreaded server architecture), no upgrade in hardware will ever make the processing time acceptable.

Elder III · Apr 17, 2010, 03:45 PM // 15:45

the GW servers have degraded in quality by allot over the last year or two; whatever the reason for that is I'm not sure, but I know they are focusing on GW2 now and are not very likely to do anything about GW1 because of that. I used to play GW when it was about 1 yr old and had xxx more ppl playing than it does now, I was on a low end pc with a very basic dsl connection and my ping rarely went over 100. Now It hovers anywhere from 80-4-500 at times (on a fairly high end pc with 5x better ISP than before). :/

Lord Sojar · Apr 17, 2010, 06:04 PM // 18:04

Indeed, on a 100/100, 250/250, or even a haxored 750/750 connection, I have yet to see my pings drop below 175ms. This could be attributed to distance if they shut down any Chicago based servers they had during the game's prime time, maybe not.

It is possible that one of the final hops may be the issue. Though, I'm more partial to thinking that it is, in fact, the amount of players per server at this point. I'm sure ANET has scaled back the number of operational servers to spend as little money operating GW1 as possible since numbers have dwindled down, and production is in full swing with GW2. There are literally 1,000s of possible reasons for your ping though, so it's nearly impossible to tell unless you are able to see each individual hop's hardware and bandwidth. Continue talks with ANET, and hopefully, they will find a resolution with you. I'll ask one of my buddies who works for Cisco if he has any genius ideas based on this information, and post here again when I can. (networking isn't my professional field...)

rohara · Apr 17, 2010, 08:22 PM // 20:22

My ping has been so terrible that I can't even play any more. It has been going on for over a week now...4-12k spikes every minute or so. I've gone through the whole rigamarole with both Anet and my ISP, and naturally, Anet blames my ISP and my ISP blames Anet. Fun stuff!

Death Syndrome · Apr 17, 2010, 08:28 PM // 20:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohara

My ping has been so terrible that I can't even play any more. It has been going on for over a week now...4-12k spikes every minute or so. I've gone through the whole rigamarole with both Anet and my ISP, and naturally, Anet blames my ISP and my ISP blames Anet. Fun stuff!

Same reason I haven't even logged in to play anything within the past month. If I do anything I just obs a game or two, which if there's no dom, I most likely do not watch more than 4 seconds of it anyways, and log back out.

imnotyourmother · Apr 20, 2010, 01:46 PM // 13:46

It's the GW servers no doubt in my mind.

I started playing 3 years ago on a 5 year old tower. My pin was almost always 75 in-game.
2 years ago I bough a brand new Dell Tower that ONLY has Firewall, Viirus Scanner and i can play in GAME mode. My ping was 75.

Then my wife started to pay GW on a laptop so we got a wirless N router and my ping became 125.

Flash forward to 8 months ago. My ping started to change. so, my wife who is in IT updated the router software - which needs to be done from time to time.

An the ping did not change. My ping slowly rose to 250-400 where it is now.

So, my conclusion is, Anet is using the minimum amout of servers without crashing the whole thing in order to test the NEW guild wars 2. At least that is the theory in my head when I get disconnected while running chests like I have been over the last 2 weeks. I will simply be running in place and then get the "would you like to reconnect" I do and there I am again.. but I think that is on my end cause I am dog sitting at my inlaws ...well ...for the last 2 weeks.

So, yeah Bigger pings in low lever areas. In DoA my ping goes back to 125-225 and once I go back to the outpost, its 400-750.

Elder III · Apr 20, 2010, 04:22 PM // 16:22

I think the above poster is spot on in his conclusion - that sounds almost exactly like what I have experienced since I first played GW.....